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Especially because right then, Jennifer Espinoza’s aura flashed into being. Only for a second or two, but enough for me to see that its main soothing blue color — nearly the same dreamy blue as the exterior of the house — had been overlaid with the dull gray of sadness, shot through with the muddy yellow of stress. It was the sort of aura I might expect to see from someone who’d recently suffered a loss.
But I saw absolutely nothing there of rage, or guilt, or any of the other negative emotions one would think might follow the terrible act of taking another person’s life.
I blinked, and Jennifer said, “I’m sorry. Was that an insensitive question?”
Some water sounded good right about now. I sipped from the glass she’d given me, then replied, “No, not at all.”
I paused there, wondering whether I should be truthful or whether it would be better to evade the question. But no — her aura told me she wasn’t guilty, no matter what might have gone on between her and Danny Ortega. And if she truly was grieving his loss, she might turn out to be a valuable ally, especially since I was doing my best to keep Josie out of this whole mess as much as possible.
“Actually, I have spoken with him,” I said, and at once Jennifer’s face lit up, and a bit of shimmering pink moved through her aura before it flashed out of existence again. It seemed clear enough to me that she really had cared about him…which was probably way more than he deserved.
“You have?” she breathed. “When?”
“Earlier this afternoon. He came into the shop.”
“He came…?” Jennifer paused there, hope and disbelief warring in her features. “You mean, he walked right in?”
“Sort of,” I replied. “It’s more like I glanced up and he was there. And he looks just the same,” I added hastily, because I caught a sudden flicker of fear from her, as though she was worried I might have seen some pallid, deathly specter instead of the healthy-looking apparition who’d made such an unexpected appearance in my store. “But yes, I did talk to him. He’s fine.”
“He’s dead,” Jennifer pointed out, and I had to smile.
“His body no longer inhabits this earthly plane,” I told her. “But his spirit still has consciousness. He’s still Danny Ortega.”
Jennifer stared down into the glass of water she was holding. “What did he want?” she asked, still looking away from me, as if she wasn’t quite sure whether she really wanted to know the answer to that question.
I drew in a breath. “He wants me to find out who killed him.”
Now Jennifer did glance up, expression almost shocked. “He doesn’t know?”
“Apparently not,” I said. “It’s really not that surprising — ghosts aren’t omniscient any more than you and I are. They can move around easily from one place to the next if they aren’t rooted to a particular location, and the way they come and go can be a bit unsettling if you’re not used to it, but otherwise, their souls are often much the same as they were in life. Danny suspects he was poisoned, but because he didn’t see who put the poison in his drink at the party, he doesn’t have any real knowledge of what actually happened.”
I paused there, then looked Jennifer straight in the eyes. I still didn’t see anything in her expression other than sadness and some confusion. Unfortunately, her aura seemed to have disappeared for the moment, so I’d have to rely on my other instincts for guidance.
“Do you have any idea who might have done this?” I asked next.
“Me?” Jennifer responded, obviously taken aback. “Why would I know anything like that?”
“Because you two were seeing each other for a while,” I said. “And I barely knew him — he only came into the shop once.”
Well, technically twice, if you counted his most recent visit. But he’d only been in there the one time while he was alive.
Jennifer blinked. “I have absolutely no idea.”
I’d been expecting that sort of response, so I decided to soldier ahead. “He told me he’d been seeing you and Corinne Newbury and Susan Laughlin. Any jealousy going on there, any reason either of them would want to get revenge on him for breaking up with them?”
That question actually earned me a smile. “Does this mean I’m a suspect, too?”
“No,” I replied at once. “Or at least, I don’t think you’re a suspect. I can’t comment on what Henry Lewis might think once he starts digging into all this. But what about Corinne and Susan?”
“Corinne?” Jennifer repeated, and shook her head. “She treated Danny just about as casually as he treated her. I don’t think she was even disappointed when he stopped calling.” A pause there, as if the recollection of her own disappointment at how things had turned out with Danny Ortega had just flitted through Jennifer’s own mind. “Anyway,” she went on, voice now almost brisk, “I heard through the grapevine that Corinne is seeing someone in Mesa, and it’s pretty serious. She’s thinking about quitting her job at the law firm here and moving in with him. She just hasn’t talked about it too much because she doesn’t want her current boss to find out before she makes up her mind.”
Interesting. I had a feeling that Corinne’s current “shopping” trip to Mesa today hadn’t actually involved any real shopping at all. And if she wanted to get another job lined up before she left this one, I could see why she was being discreet about the whole thing.
Not discreet enough,I thought then,if Jennifer Espinoza knows all about it.
Then again, the important thing was that her boss wouldn’t find out. Corinne worked for Garland and Milnes, one of Globe’s only two law firms. I’d never met Louis Garland, senior partner at the firm, but I’d heard he was the old-school, uptight type, only a few years away from retirement. Most likely, he wouldn’t be exactly thrilled to hear that his top paralegal was planning to move to greener pastures…so to speak.
“Okay,” I said. “Then we can probably rule out Corinne. What can you tell me about Susan Laughlin?”
